Garrotxa Volcanoes Natural Park

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The Croscat volcano between Olot and Santa Pau

The Garrotxa Volcanoes Natural Park (Catalan: Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa ) is located in northeastern Catalonia in Spain .

description

The nature reserve was designated by the Catalan government in 1982. It has an extension of 120 km² and includes eleven communities, more than 40 volcanoes, more than 20 lava flows and integrates 20 different nature reserves. All volcanoes are considered inactive, but not extinct. The last eruption of one of these volcanoes was about 10,000 years ago. The largest municipality, the city of Olot (30,000 inhabitants), is located roughly in the center of the nature reserve. This nature park integrates 26 individual nature reserves (including the Fageda d'en Jordà , a beech forest characteristic of the southern Pyrenees foothills), the volcano Croscat and the volcano Montsacopa . The aim of the Catalan government is to harmonize nature conservation with economic development in this area. In particular, one wants to protect the area from excessive degradation of volcanic rocks and pumice sand and pumice gravel. The area has a rich flora (1200 plant species) and fauna (237 vertebrate species), both of which are very different from those on the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. It is a very characteristic landscape. Around 40,000 people live in this area. 98% of the area is privately owned.

The volcano museum (Museu dels Volcans) in Olot, Parc Nou, offers information on volcanism in the Garrotxa. The museum is a division of the Garrotxa Natural History Museum (Secció de Ciències Naturals Museu Comarcal Garrotxa) in Olot.

The Garrotxa is one of the most important European volcanic areas along with the Eifel , the French Massif Central and the central Spanish volcanic area of ​​Campo de Calatrava . A Wegvariante the Jakob path Camino Catalán passes through the protected area of the Garrotxa.

The volcanic rock gardens of Vora Tosca

A field in Vora Tosca in winter

The Vora Tosca, also called Bosc de Tosca , is a bizarre, beautiful landscape between Olot and Les Preses within the nature park, which leaves the impression of a lunar landscape. The landscape was shaped about 11,000 years ago by the last eruption of the Croscat volcano. The area is used more extensively for agriculture in the form of around two hundred volcanic rock gardens and fields. The fields are surrounded by dry stone walls made of the surrounding volcanic stones (Catalan: pedra tosca, German: rough porous volcanic stone). These dry stone walls are broken through by arches made of the same stones. A labyrinth of paths leads around the dry stone walls. There are some natural, but also artificially built volcanic stone caves (Catalan: barracas) on the edge of the fields, which are used by gardeners and farmers as shelter or as weather protection. The fields are actually not very productive because the humus layer is very thin. However, with their long experience, the gardeners on site managed to wrest sufficient grain, potatoes and beans from the soil. Wine was even grown here until the 1960s. On the bike path from Olot to Les Preses, already in the district of Les Preses, the two municipalities mentioned have created a volcanic stone park ( Parc de Pedra Tosca ), in which the visitor can hike through this bizarrely beautiful landscape.

Individual volcanoes

literature

  • Francesc Gurri Serra: Parcs naturals de Catalunya . Ed .: Generalitat de Catalunya. Editorial 92 SA, Barcelona 1997, ISBN 84-393-4352-3 .
  • Roberto Cabo: Nature Guide - Spain . blv Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-405-14078-1 , p. 213 ff .
  • Les Preses municipality, Olot town (ed.): Parc de Pedra Tosca . Leaflet (in Catalan, Spanish and English) on the volcanic rock gardens of Vora Tosca.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: Information board at the Vulkan Museum and information from the Museum in Olot in Parc Nou (New Park)
  2. ↑ d. i. the former route of the Olot – Girona train
  3. ↑ at the level of the tourist information building (former Codella train station, the first train station of the old steam train to Olot)
  4. ↑ Information according to the information boards at the entrance to Parc de Pedra Tosca

Web links

Commons : Garrotxa  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Vora Tosca  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 42 ° 8 ′ 53 "  N , 2 ° 27 ′ 38"  E